PAS: Avoid Unintended Consequences

Wednesday, April 11, 2018 @ 05:04 PM gHale

By Gregory Hale
Advances in technologies can lead to great things for the manufacturing automation sector, but everyone has to keep in mind security has to play a key role.

“With new technologies and new advancements, we can see unintended consequences,” said Eddie Habibi, chief executive and founder of PAS Global during his Tuesday keynote address at the PAS 2018 Optics conference in Houston, TX. “This is no different than working in a process plant where there are unintended consequences.”

The technological move forward has quite a bit to offer manufacturers, but the awareness of what a user has out on the plant floor and what you can learn from it is an important factor in the digital age.

“There is an opportunity to digitize all pieces of equipment, employees and devices,” Habibi said. “If a device is not digitized and it is out in the plant, you don’t have visibility and it does not exist.”

Digital plants are coming, but there are risks, said Mark Carrigan, PAS Global chief operating officer during his part of the keynote. It is all about data integrity.

“Increased connectivity means more cyber risk,” Carrigan said. “We have to manage that. We are leveraging technology we have built to create a consolidated view of everything. There is a digital dashboard for cyber, alarms, operational risk, production performance. We are taking all technology we have developed to give a holistic view of safety and security.”